Countdown to Halloween

It is the first of October, which means of course that the Countdown to Halloween has officially started! Even tough I officiously start my own countdown in August, sometimes (often) even late July, because one month is not enough. To kickstart the month, a picture of last year's Jack O'Lanterns. Like every year, Vraie Fiction will be for the month of October almost exclusively about Halloween. As usual this year, I am a Cryptkeeper, so I will also be visiting other blogs about the holiday and hopefully will get a few new readers who will stay. To everyone, happy countdown and happy upcoming Halloween!

Countdown to Halloween

We are the first of October, the month of Halloween, so from now on and until the 31st we have started our official countdown to Halloween. This blog will be pretty much exclusively Halloween as its topic for the rest of the month. Halloween in all its aspects, but mainly its horror. That said, to kick start the countdown, I am sharing a picture taken in the pages of the cat lover magazine Miaou. It's a French magazine. I stumbled upon it at the airport and the image struck me. Halloween is not very popular in France, in fact many French are hostile to it: too American, too consumerist, too sinister, or so they say. I did my bid back at uni to defend and popularize my favourite holiday to the French students I met. So when I saw this image, I was quite happy. Sure, it is a bit too sickeningly sweet for my taste: a rosy cheeked black cat with flowers on it, a pre Jack O'Lantern pumpkins with hearts, this is not really how I imagine Halloween. But it shows it is becoming popular in France. Anyway, watch this space, I will soon blog more. Until then, happy countdown.

Miaou

Le dernier jour de notre dernier séjour en France, alors que nous attendions à l'aéroport, je suis tombé sur Miaou, un magazine félin, enfin pour les amoureux des chats. Le nom est un peu bête, le slogan quant à lui est absolument abrutissant de niaiserie ("la revue pour ronronner de bonheur", ayoye!) et je crois me souvenir que son prix était prohibitif. Cela dit, bravo pour la couverture attrayante. Sans doute à cause d'elle, j''ai été brièvement tenté de l'acheter. Je lis très rarement des revues, pratiquement jamais depuis l'avènement d'internet en fait. Les rares fois où j'en achète, c'est justement lorsque je suis en voyage, bien que même là je préfère et de loin lire un roman. Je suis peut-être trop influençable, en plus d'être le lectorat-cible. Même ma femme y a songé un instant. Cela dit, quel nom quétaine!